1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of network communications, and more particularly, to voice enabled network communications.
2. Description of the Related Art
A portal is a web site that proposes to be a major starting site for users when the users connect to the World Wide Web (Web). For instance, many browsers connect to a portal by default and a large number of access providers offer portals to the Web for their own users. Such portals are typically accessible using computers or similar devices having a graphical user interface (GUI) based web browser.
Expanding access to the Web, voice portals have been developed which offer voice applications that take advantage of features provided by portal servers. For example, one can place a voice call via a telephone and access a voice portal, typically by authenticating to a voice portal server. Such voice portals often provide to voice callers information that is also available to conventional GUI based web browsers via the Internet. In some respects, accessing the information via a voice portal can be a more pleasant experience than using a GUI, especially when complex menu navigation is required to retrieve the information.
Currently, however, users cannot in a single user session switch between voice and web views. Thus, users cannot easily take advantage of the voice mode of a portal while simultaneously accessing the portal using a conventional web browser.